It was well after midnight and into the wee hours of March 13 in suburban New Jersey, when Jets GM Joe Douglas saw agent David Dunn’s number flash on his phone. The free-agent tampering period was set to begin in a matter of hours, at noon that Monday. Pro day season was underway, too. But there was nothing more important, in the moment, for Douglas, or for the Jets, than answering that call.
“Hey, man, I know it’s late out there,” said Dunn, calling on behalf of his star client. “Aaron wants to be a Jet.”
Aaron, of course, was Aaron Rodgers, and Douglas’s reaction was like Jonah Hill’s portrayal in Moneyball of analytics legend Paul DePodesta (renamed Peter Brand in the movie) finalizing the Ricardo Rincon deal crossed with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort closing a sale in The Wolf of Wall Street. Yes, the Jets’ GM wanted to scream in exultation. But his kids and wife were sleeping, so all the fist pumps and skipping around the room had to happen in silence.
